A very rare cookbook choice in the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards and author, Claire Gourley, is one of the youngest people to have been shortlisted.

Claire Gourley has been given the huge honour of being shortlisted in the non-fiction category of the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards. Claire, who has just turned 17, is one of the youngest authors to ever be nominated for the award. Who’s Cooking Tonight? is a fun cookbook written by a teenager for teenagers to get them into the kitchen and learning to cook healthy, nutritious foods. This is the first cookbook to ever be nominated in the awards.

Claire, in collaboration with her mum Glenda, has packed Who’s Cooking Tonight? full of the type of quick and tasty dishes that we all love to cook and eat. It includes step-by-step preparation instructions for the new generation of cooks who don’t want to spend hours preparing or cooking their meals. The recipes are tested, nutritionally sound and if Claire didn’t like the recipe, found it too hard or didn’t like the outcome, it went west.

Young people are savvier about their health today and although we hear lots of horror stories, many want to eat healthily. They just don’t want to spend lots of time doing it or end up with boring results! That is the beauty of Who’s Cooking Tonight? — the recipes are fun, easy, good for you and won’t take long to produce.

Glenda and Claire make a great team. Glenda has spent her career in food and nutrition education and currently does the marketing for Potatoes NZ. She has the pedigree to know what is nutritionally sound and as a mother knows what motivates kids. The book combines the two skills and will appeal to the vast number of young people who, like Claire, love food, but typically have lots of other priorities.

Claire is an accomplished young woman. She is currently in her last year of high school and is an extremely active student, plays lots of sport, has successfully attended youth leaders conferences and competed in national speech competitions. Claire was the presenter of ‘Claire Cooks’ on TV2’s Studio 2 programme and is the presenter of TV2’s Small Blacks programme airing from this Sunday. Claire has also been featured on TV2’s The Erin Simpson Show, all with the motivation of teaching teenagers to cook. Claire has been a judge for the NZ Beef and Lamb Burger Competition and for the Maggi Intermediate School Kitchen Showdown 2010.

Based on a popular website, http://www.itsmyturntocooktonight.com/, Who’s Cooking Tonight? is a one-of-a kind cookbook. Penguin New Zealand is extremely proud of Claire’s achievements so far and look forward to seeing the book well showcased at the Awards Ceremony in Auckland on Wednesday 18 May.
Claire will be a part of the group of finalists who will be participating in children’s book events around the country as part of a nationwide festival celebrating the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards. The festivities begin on Monday 9 May and continue through to Tuesday 17 May.